Nopeon Eunduk

A girls’ team from Guney Yayla, an isolated Turkish village in the Burdur province of Anatolia, met with sudden fame at the last World Cup football championship. For them, wearing shorts is forbidden, so they train in the highly original attire of long, baggy pants and rubber shoes, which they sported in their matches at Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya… Once the media’s excitement had subsided, a Korean crew went to film these young women’s daily life. Despite their ambitions, their life continues to be dictated by a patriarchal society, where the men meet in the café while the women are confined to domestic duties and hard work, like collecting wood. In this context, the time they spend with the film crew represents much more than a sports break and their favourite song takes on full meaning: Don’t build your house on a high hill, Don’t marry your daughter in a distant place, Don’t be hard with me, I was my mother’s favourite, Listen to me, passing birds, I sorely miss my mother…